VXLAN enables multiple tenants to operate in a data center. Each tenant is assigned a priority group to prioritize their traffic. Cloud carriers want to use quality of service to differentiate different applications.

Data center networks are being increasingly used by telecommunications operators as well as by enterprises. Currently these networks are organized as one large Layer 2 network in a single building. In some cases, such a network is extended geographically using Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) technologies as an even larger Layer 2 network connecting the virtual machines (VM), each with its own MAC address.

Multiple tenants might want their own isolated network domain. In a data center hosting multiple tenants, each tenant may independently assign MAC addresses and VLAN IDs and this might lead to duplication.

Cloud carriers wish to categorize the traffic based on the application such as voice, video, etc. Based on the type of the application different traffic classes may be identified and different priority levels can be assigned to each. To do so, quality of service marking is needed in VXLAN.

This chapter shows how to mark packet headers with the VXLAN tunnel end point (VTEP) when the frames are introduced by the virtual machines. The (re)marking /setting of QoS field DSCP/TOS in the VXLAN IP header is done with the two modes which are set globally.

Two commands support L2 VxLAN QoS: